


Unspoken Words

by korras_sports_bra



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Bisexual Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Christmas, F/F, I literally have no idea what to put in the tags, M/M, Spoilers, Voltron Spoilers, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 12:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16933104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/korras_sports_bra/pseuds/korras_sports_bra
Summary: Honestly I have no idea what's going to happen during season 8 so I'm being insanely self-indulgent and writing something nice and wholesome and christmassy before I inevitably meet my doom on the 14th :,)I have no clue how long this is gonna be? We gonna find out together lol(what even is a good title for this idk)





	Unspoken Words

Lance felt a wave of content envelop him as he observed the room.  
The garrison was no longer their makeshift base of operations for war; it was a place for celebration. After Earth’s victory over the Galra Empire, the planet was finally at peace. Despite taking a harsh beating when the invasion first arrived all those years ago, the new victory and the end of a long war was a call for celebration.   
Garrison pilots, commanding officers, civilians, alien allies--everyone was blissfully deep in festivities. The garrison docks had been covered in countless decorations from nearly every living thing that called the base home; music was blaring from overhead speakers, and the whole room was full of warmth and laughter. Granted their victory wasn’t the only thing they were celebrating, and it was something that Lance had missed terribly--Christmas.  
It was surreal almost, how joyful everyone was. The most common sight that night was the families of garrison pilots, gathering around loved ones, some in tears after finding surviving members they thought had been lost the the Galra Invasion. In the middle of the room was a large, long table lined with pastries, old family recipes, alien goop, and other various food and drink; most of it had disappeared throughout the night. Lance could hear members of his own family laughing over the music, and he turned to meet eyes with his sister Veronica, who stuck her tongue out at him. He returned the gesture with a smile, and let his eyes wander to his teammates.  
Nah, he thought to himself. They were more like family, now.   
Pidge was running away from Matt, who was chasing her down after she dangled a mistletoe over him and one of the unlucky commanding officers he was talking to. Pidge cackled as she snaked around unsuspecting partygoers, knocking bits of food from their plates, and dove between her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Holt scolded their children as Pidge used them as a barrier between her and her brother, and even though Colleen was yelling at them to stop messing around, they all had smiles on their faces.   
Behind the Holt family was Hunk, who was happily talking with his family (most likely about his missions with Shay for the millionth time). He sported one of those ridiculous elf hats with felt ears poking out the sides, and all the while he talked, Coran was giving him the stink eye. Romelle and Allura giggled at this exchange from the side, their arms locked tightly together. Lance still couldn’t get over the sight of the two girls in matching Christmas sweaters, but Allura was hellbent on “honoring a sacred Earth tradition” and was happy to share it with her Altean girlfriend.   
And then there was Shiro, standing by the Christmas tree the garrison had set up, with a torn-up--yet very much alive--Adam.  
They had not left each other’s side since Adam’s arrival. He was lost in the desert after escaping the wreckage of his fighter and had been hiding from the Galra until their defeat 3 years later. He finally stumbled upon an old terrain rover from the garrison and had used it to find his way back to the base. When he stumbled into the garrison, nearly half-dead, he surprised everyone when he still had the strength to punch Shiro in the face. Lance winced as he remembered Adam yelling at Shiro for leaving him, but eventually, the anger subsided as the two of them broke down with the relief of seeing each other alive. And now they were back together, a war-torn power couple, who brandished their wedding bands to family and friends as they recounted their wedding for the up-teenth time that night.  
Lance tapped his mug of cocoa and scanned the room. He frowned as his eyes passed the sea of heads in front of him. He stood on his tip-toes to get a better vantage point, but to no avail. Where the heck is--  
“Have you seen Keith?”  
Lance jumped, nearly dropping his mug. Shiro and Adam had escaped the swarm of people and had snuck up behind him. Shiro laughed and held up his hands in defense.   
“Sorry, Lance,” he chuckled. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”  
“I wasn’t scared,” Lance huffed. “Just...surprised!”  
Adam grinned. “Sure you were. How’s that arm treatin’ ya, by the way?”  
Lance held up his left arm and gave a thumbs up. It was weird how natural it felt, but having a robotic prosthetic wasn’t as bad as Lance figured. After getting over the shock of losing his arm in their final battle, he was overcome with the idea that he was now on the same level as Shiro, and had been competing with him in a very one-sided competition of who was the cooler robot-armed paladin of the team.   
Shiro almost had a melancholy look on his face, and Lance frowned.   
“Ooooh no,” said Lance. “We’ve been over this! Don’t start getting all sad thinking you could’ve been the hero and saved me from my fate or something. Besides, I like having a robot arm.”  
“Of course you do,” Shiro sighed, a smile returning to his face. “Just remember to take it easy so you avoid nerve damage--”  
“Ugh, I know, dad,” Lance groaned with mock annoyance. “I swear you’re as bad as Allura when it comes to parental doting.” He made a peace sign and an “OK” sign with his arm to drive his point. “See? I’m fine!”   
Shiro accepted defeat, while Adam nudged him with his elbow. “Anyway, while we did come over to escape the party, we were wondering if you knew where Keith was hiding?”  
Lance pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “And you’re asking me because...?”  
“Because you two are, like, always together?” Shiro said, raising his brow. “I’ve seen you guys argue and bicker all the time, and yet you’re practically joined at the hip.” Shiro suddenly clapped his hands and pointed at Lance in sudden realization. “Like an old married couple!”  
“Aw, like us!” Adam beamed. He and Shiro started making googly eyes at each other and Lance cringed.   
“Ugh, stop, that’s like seeing my two dads being all gushy and romantic.”  
Shiro smiled at Adam and looked back to Lance. “We’ll start making out right now if you don’t go look for Keith.”  
“GROSS, gross! No! Okay!” Lance shouted. “Okay! Fine! I’ll go hunt him down, just, please spare me the torture!”  
He shielded his eyes as he sprinted past Adam and Shiro. He could hear them laughing from behind as he walked out of the docks. He actually had a pretty good idea of where Keith was.  
Lance sighed and stuck his free hand in his pocket as he wandered down the hall, sipping from his mug as he headed down to the garrison dorms. Whenever places got too crowded, Keith would usually slink off to one of the dorms on the first floor so he could be his emo, lone wolf persona in peace. He did this almost every time, and Lance couldn’t help but notice him leaving.  
I mean, who else am I gonna show my arm off to? Lance thought to himself. He smiled at the memory of showing Keith his new arm for the first time, boasting about how much cooler he was now that he was pretty much a cyborg. Keith had disagreed of course, and the two hadn’t seen eye-to-eye on the topic since. Granted, they didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, and while that annoyed past Lance, present Lance had grown to like their bickering. It made their relationship interesting, and Lance never found himself bored with Keith.   
Keith was a constant force in Lance’s life, and while they butted heads and got on each other’s nerves, Lance never found himself hating Keith. He actually enjoyed their time together, from getting stuck in the elevator shaft to the pool in the Castle of Lions, to battling side by side against all kinds of enemies in Voltron. Keith was an incredible paladin, a great leader, and...  
Lance stopped in the middle of the hallway and frowned at his feet. Keith was his friend, but Lance almost didn’t like the sound of that word. They were closer...brothers, maybe? No, Lance had siblings, and while he only had sisters, Lance couldn’t see Keith as a brother. He was close, but not in a sibling context. It didn’t fit Keith well enough.   
Lance scuffed his shoe against the tile and furrowed his brows. What was Keith to Lance? More than a friend, but not like a brother. Lance had grown incredibly, unexplainably fond of Keith. He could help but notice, when Keith wasn’t busy glaring at Lance, that he looked really nice when he smiled at one of Hunk’s jokes. Keith also had this habit of twirling his fingers in his ever-growing mullet whenever he was thinking too hard, and Lance had to fight back the urge to do the same. Could you blame him? That dumb mullet looked fluffy and soft enough to take a nap in. And occasionally, Lance would sneak a peek at his eyes and think how in the world Keith’s eyes could contain so many different shades of purple. Allura had some competition there--  
Lance stopped dragging his foot across the floor and his eyes widened. His cheeks grew hot as he tried to stomp the intrusive thoughts out of his head, walking at a break-neck pace down the hall.   
“Nope, no way,” he mumbled into his mug of now-cold hot chocolate. “Absolutely not. Not with Keith. Nope. Never. Not happening.”  
He stopped again, this time staring down the only open dorm room in the hall, no doubt the one Keith decided to take refuge in. Lance forced the last of his thoughts into the back of his mind and snuck closer to the open door frame.   
There, with his back facing the door, and Kosmo down by his side, was Keith. He was laying on top of the covers of the bottom bunk, with his knees curled up to his stomach, almost like he had a stomach ache. Kosmo lifted his head to look at Lance in the doorway, and Lance suddenly felt very self-conscious, partially with the fact that he was in an ugly Christmas sweater. He slowly backed up out of sight, sighing into his hand to check his breath, touching his upper lip to make sure he didn’t have whip cream on his face, smelling his underarms in hopes he didn’t reek--  
Wait a sec, Keith thought. Why does it even matter? It’s just Keith...  
Lance shook his head, looked around the corner back into the dorm, and took a big step forward. He raised his hand and tapped the doorframe with his knuckles.   
“H-hey, Keith?” he tried. “You, uh, you good?”  
Kosmo answered by perking up his ears, even though he had his eyes on Lance the entire time. In a flash, he teleported to his side and licked Lance’s pant leg. Keith however, didn’t move. Lance set his mug down on the floor (a mistake he realized too soon as Kosmo began lapping up the rest of his hot chocolate) and shuffled sheepishly into the middle of the room. He rubbed his arm, stopped himself when he realized he couldn’t feel anything, and switched to rubbing the back of his neck.   
“Uh, I just wanted to check up on you, since you’ve been MIA recently,” said Lance. “I--the team and I haven’t seen you much tonight, and it’s kinda boring not having you around...” Lance paused. “...You’re not asleep, are you?”  
Lance flinched when Keith finally stirred and sat up straight.  
“O-oh, awake. Got it...”  
Lance took a cautious step forward as Keith turned to face him, his eyes focused on the floor as his feet dangled off the side of the bunk. Lance balanced on his heels as he stood in the middle of a prolonged, awkward silence. “Mind if I...?”  
Keith answered by scooching over to the side and weakly patted the space next to him. Lance took the empty spot, twiddling his thumbs as he tried to figure out what to say.   
“So, uh, not a fan of parties?”  
Keith sighed and gave Kosmo a scratch behind his ear as the space wolf finished stealing the rest of Lance’s drink. “Guess not.”  
Lance frowned. “Is it...something else? Something you wanna talk about?”  
Keith shook his head. “No, I’m...I’m fine.”  
“You don’t look fine.”  
Keith whipped his head up, his expression angry. “Jeez, Lance, why can’t you take a hint?!”  
Lance recoiled but quickly stood his ground. “I’m not gonna take any hints!” Keith blinked at him, and Lance sighed, his voice quieter. “Listen, Keith. The angry, closed-off ‘I’m gonna handle my feelings on my own’ schtick isn’t gonna work on me anymore. In all the years we’ve been a team, a family, I know when you’re fine, and right now you’re not fine. So...lay your cards on the table for once...please?”   
Keith stared at the floor for a moment, then slumped on the bunk and sighed. “Sorry,” he grumbled. “I guess...I guess I’m just...jealous?”  
Lance tilted his head. “Jealous? Of what?”  
Keith pulled at a loose thread from his sock. “I...ugh, it’ll sound stupid.”  
That caught his attention. Lance readjusted himself on the bunk. It creaked at an uncomfortably loud level, bu the tried to ignore it. “No, it won’t, you can tell me.”  
Keith finally looked at Lance, like actually looked at him. His eyes were tired and puffy, and yet he raised an eyebrow at him. “...You’re not gonna make fun of me?”  
“Under normal circumstances, maybe,” Lance confessed. “But this seems serious so, no. I’m not gonna make fun of you.”  
Keith digested what Lance was saying as he continued to pull at his sock. Lance was mesmerized by the thread himself as he waited for Keith to answer.   
“...Well,” he started. “I’m...jealous because...” He paused like he was in the process of figuring his thoughts out on the spot. “I guess I’m jealous because everyone...everyone has families.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean...damn it,” Keith huffed. “This is stupid. I...I miss my mother.”  
Lance took in a breath as he understood. “...Oh.”  
Keith groaned. “See, I told you it was dumb--”  
“No, no!” said Lance. “Keith, gosh, of course that would make anyone sad! It’s normal to miss family, especially on Christmas Eve!”  
“But my mom is Galra! I don’t expect her to care about silly Earth customs, or even come back from...wherever she is! I mean, would it kill her to even send a message? I don’t even know if she’s...”  
Keith stopped. Int he middle of his anger, his eyes had welled up with tears. He quickly He quickly looked away as he frantically rubbed his eyes and slouched his shoulders.   
“Hey man...” Lance murmured. He gingerly placed his hand on Keith’s back as he sniffled into his hands. “It’s okay to be upset. But...staying in a stinky old garrison dorm all alone on Christmas Eve isn’t going to make you feel better.” When Keith didn’t answer, Lance tried something else. “Keith, I...we’re your family. And I know that doesn’t really compare to your mother, but we care about you! And frankly, I’ll fight your mom when she comes back. Hell, I’ll be your mom, how about that!”  
Lance peeked at Keith, trying to find a hint of a smile, or anything really, and was surprised when Keith suddenly leaned to the side and fell into Lance’s shoulder. He clung to his ugly sweater and sniffled into the fabric, all the while Lance sat there, flustered, with his arms hovering around Keith.  
“O-oh, okay. Hugging...yeah...we’re hugging now...” he stammered. Even though Lance was trying to make light of the situation, he wasn’t sure how to handle a crying Keith. Regardless, he let his arms settle around Keith’s back, pulling them into a tighter embrace as he cried.   
They stayed like that for a while, Lance wasn’t sure how long. Kosmo whined, and nudged Keith’s foot with his nose. Lance shooed him away gently. “Not now Kosmo,” he whispered. “We’re having a bonding moment!”  
Keith sniffed, laughing a bit.   
“What?”   
“I thought you didn’t remember,” he mumbled into Lance’s sweater.  
Lance’s face flushed. “Of course I remember, how could I forget?” Lance paused. “Uh, Keith?”  
“Mm,” he sniffled.   
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember something when I was trapped in Red, during our last battle.”  
Keith didn’t respond.   
“I mean,” Lance continued, “maybe it was space madness, but when I was going in and out of consciousness, I distinctly remember a blurry, ugly mullet, pulling me out of the cockpit.”   
Lance faintly rested his head on top of Keith’s head as he spoke. “You saved me, mullet.” He blinked, and laughed, looking at his arm. “Well, most of me. But if that isn’t a bonding moment, I don’t know what is.”  
Keith pushed his nose further into Lance’s shoulder, clutching his sweater tighter. He mumbled something Lance couldn’t quite catch.   
“What did you say?” asked Lance.  
“...I didn’t want to lose you.”  
Oh.  
“Oh.” Lance swallowed the nervous lump in his throat, trying to keep his composure. He hoped to God that Keith couldn’t hear his heart pounding in his chest. His hands, well, hand, was starting to sweat and he fought the urge to wipe his palm on his pants. “W-well, don’t worry, you can’t get rid of me that easily.”  
Keith stayed quiet until he slowly pulled himself away from Lance, His dumb, emo hair was covering his eyes so Lance couldn’t tell what was going on inside his head. Keith had let his hands fall down to catch Lance’s wrists, as if he couldn’t comprehend was wrists were and his head was tilted in the direction of Lance’s prosthetic arm. Lance frowned and grabbed Keith’s hand with his own, frustrated that he couldn’t feel anything except for the sensation of moving it.   
“Hey,” Lance whispered, gripping Keith’s hand a bit tighter. “I’m not going anywhere.” He shook Keith’s hand as he said this, emphasizing his words. “That’s a promise.”  
Keith looked up, his eyes puffy and red, but still big and purple as ever. Lance smiled softly at him, unable to process what was about to happen as Keith suddenly moved closer to Lance’s face. And then, as Lance’s eyes grew so wide he thought his eyeballs would pop out of his head, Keith planted a kiss on Lance’s lips.   
It was dizzying. Overwhelming. Lance made a surprised yelp as Keith kissed him. He was having a hard time wrapping his brain around what was going on. His chest pounded so hard he was afraid the entire garrison could hear.  
And yet...it was nice. If felt right. Even if the kiss was far from perfect (since their teeth kind of clicked together at the force of it), it felt...nice.   
Lance could feel himself relaxing into it as Keith slid his hand up his arm. If it were the one still attached to him, Lance would probably have goosebumps trailing Keith’s hand. He sighed and finally closed his eyes, too dizzy to really think about anything that was happening, and when Keith pulled away, Lance blinked, completely twitterpated as he stared into Keith’s big, puppy-dog eyes.   
It was also in that moment, when they pulled away, that he noticed Pidge standing in the doorway.


End file.
